Audio/Video channel bonding configuration adaptations

ABSTRACT

A data communication architecture delivers a wide variety of content, including audio and video content, to consumers. The architecture employs channel bonding to deliver more bandwidth than any single communication channel can carry. In some implementations, the communication architecture communicates content according to an initial bonding configuration. The communication architecture may adjust the bonding configuration to adapt to bonding environment changes affecting the communication capabilities or requirements associated with transmitting the content.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This application claims priority to and is a continuation of U.S.application Ser. No. 13/672,979 filed Nov. 9, 2012, now issued as U.S.Pat. No. 9,264,747, which claims the benefit of U.S. ProvisionalApplication Ser. No. 61/663,878 filed Jun. 25, 2012 and U.S. ProvisionalApplication Ser. No. 61/609,339 filed Mar. 11, 2012, each of which isincorporated in their entirety by reference herein.

1. Technical Field

This disclosure relates to audio and video communication techniques. Inparticular, this disclosure relates to dynamic channel bonding for audioand video communication.

2. Background

Rapid advances in electronics and communication technologies, driven byimmense private and public sector demand, have resulted in thewidespread adoption of smart phones, personal computers, internet readytelevisions and media players, and many other devices in every part ofsociety, whether in homes, in business, or in government. These deviceshave the potential to consume significant amounts of audio and videocontent. At the same time, data networks have been developed thatattempt to deliver the content to the devices in many different ways.Further improvements in the delivery of content to the devices will helpcontinue to drive demand for not only the devices, but for the contentdelivery services that feed the devices.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The innovation may be better understood with reference to the followingdrawings and description. In the figures, like reference numeralsdesignate corresponding parts throughout the different views.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a content delivery architecture that employschannel bonding.

FIG. 2 shows an example implementation of a distributor.

FIG. 3 shows an example implementation of a portion of a distributor.

FIG. 4 shows an example of logic for monitoring content deliveryconditions.

FIG. 5 shows an example implementation of a portion of a distributor.

FIG. 6 shows an example of logic for modifying a channel bondingconfiguration.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows an example content delivery architecture 100. Thearchitecture 100 delivers data (e.g., audio streams and video programs)from a source 102 to a destination 104. The source 102 may includesatellite, cable, or other media providers, and may represent, forexample, a head-end distribution center that delivers content toconsumers. The source 102 may receive the data in the form of MotionPicture Expert Group 2 (MPEG2) Transport Stream (TS) packets 128, whenthe data is audio/visual programming, for example. The destination 104may be a home, business, or other location, where, for example, a settop box processes the data sent by and received from the source 102. Thediscussion below makes reference to packets, and in some places specificmention is made of MPEG2 TS packets. However, the channel bondingtechniques described below may be applied to a wide range of differenttypes and formats of data and communication units, whether they areMPEG2 TS packets, packets of other types, or other types ofcommunication units, and the techniques are not limited to MPEG2 TSpackets at any stage of the processing.

The source 102 may include a statistical multiplexer 106 and adistributor 108. The statistical multiplexer 106 helps make datatransmission efficient by reducing idle time in the source transportstream (STS) 110. In that regard, the statistical multiplexer 106 mayinterleave data from multiple input sources together to form thetransport stream 110. For example, the statistical multiplexer 106 mayallocate additional STS 110 bandwidth among high bit rate programchannels and relatively less bandwidth among low bit rate programchannels to provide the bandwidth needed to convey widely varying typesof content at varying bit rates to the destination 104 at any desiredquality level. Thus, the statistical multiplexer 106 very flexiblydivides the bandwidth of the STS 110 among any number of input sources.

Several input sources are present in FIG. 1: Source 1, Source 2, . . . ,Source n. There may be any number of such input sources carrying anytype of audio, video, or other type of data (e.g., web pages or filetransfer data). Specific examples of source data include MPEG or MPEG2TS packets for digital television (e.g., individual television programsor stations), and 4K×2K High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) video (e.g.,H.265/MPEG-H) data, but the input sources may provide any type of inputdata. The source data (e.g., the MPEG 2 packets) may include programidentifiers (PIDs) that indicate a specific program (e.g., whichtelevision station) to which the data in the packets belongs.

The STS 110 may have a data rate that exceeds the transport capabilityof any one or more communication links between the source 102 and thedestination 104. For example, the STS 110 data rate may exceed the datarate supported by a particular cable communication channel exiting thesource 102. To help deliver the aggregate bandwidth of the STS 110 tothe destination 104, the source 102 includes a distributor 108 andmodulators 130 that feed a bonded channel group 112 of multipleindividual communication channels. In other words, the source 102distributes the aggregate bandwidth of the STS 110 across multipleoutgoing communication channels that form a bonded channel group 112,and that together provide the bandwidth for communicating the data inthe STS 110 to the destination 104.

The distributor 108 may be implemented in hardware, software, or both.The distributor 108 may determine which data in the STS 110 to send onwhich communication channel. As one example, the distributor 108 maydivide the STS 110 into chunks of one or more packets. The chunks mayvary in size over time, based on the communication channel that willcarry the chunk, the program content in the chunk, or based on any otherdesired chunk decision factors implemented in the distributor 108. Thedistributor 108 may forward any particular chunk to the modulator forthe channel that the distributor 108 has decided will convey thatparticular chunk to the destination 104.

In that regard, the multiple individual communication channels withinthe bonded channel group 112 provide an aggregate amount of bandwidth,which may be less than, equal to, or in excess of the aggregatebandwidth of the STS 110. As just one example, there may be three 30 Mbsphysical cable channels running from the source 102 to the destination104 that handle, in the aggregate, up to 90 Mbs. The communicationchannels in the bonded channel group 112 may be any type ofcommunication channel, including dial-up (e.g., 56 Kbps) channels, ADSLor ADSL 2 channels, coaxial cable channels, wireless channels such as802.11a/b/g/n channels or 60 GHz WiGig channels, Cable TV channels,coaxial channels, WiMAX/IEEE 802.16 channels, Fiber optic, 10 Base T,100 Base T, 1000 Base T, power lines, satellite, or other types ofcommunication channels. The modulators 130 may process data forcommunication across any type of communication channel, including theexamples listed above.

The bonded channel group 112 travels to the destination 104 over anynumber of transport mechanisms 114 suitable for the communicationchannels within the bonded channel group 112. The transport mechanisms144 may include physical cabling (e.g., fiber optic or cable TVcabling), wireless connections (e.g., satellite, microwave connections,802.11a/b/g/n connections), or any combination of such connections.

At the destination 104, the bonded channel group 112 is input intoindividual channel demodulators 116. The channel demodulators 116recover the data sent by the source 102 in each communication channel. Acollator 118 collects the data recovered by the demodulators 116, andmay create a destination transport stream (DTS) 120. The DTS 120 may beone or more streams of packets recovered from the individualcommunication channels as sequenced by the collator 118.

The destination 104 also includes a transport inbound processor (TIP)122. The TIP 122 processes the DTS 120. The TIP 122 may execute programidentifier (PID) filtering for each channel independently of otherchannels. To that end, the TIP 122 may identify, select, and outputpackets from a selected program (e.g., a selected program ‘t’) that arepresent in the DTS 120, and drop or discard packets for other programs.In the example shown in FIG. 1, the TIP 122 has recovered program ‘t’,which corresponds to the program originally provided by Source 1. TheTIP 122 provides the recovered program to any desired endpoints 124,such as televisions, laptops, mobile phones, and personal computers. Thedestination 104 may be a set top box, for example, and some or all ofthe demodulators 116, collator 118, and TIP 122 may be implemented ashardware, software, or both in the set top box. In this way, the contentdelivery architecture 100 may employ channel bonding to deliver datafrom the source 102 to the destination 104.

The source 102 may deliver data to the destination 104 according to abonding configuration. A bonding configuration may include any number ofbonding configuration parameters that specify how the source 102delivers the data to the destination 104. As examples, the bondingconfiguration may specify the number of communication channels in thebonded channel group 112, the communication channels that may beincluded in the bonded channel group 112, the type of communicationchannels that may be included in the bonding channel group 112, theprogram sources eligible for bonding, when and for how longcommunication channels and program sources are available for channelbonding, bonding adaptation criteria, transmission parameters, and anyother parameters that may influence how and when the distributor 108pushes program data across the communication channels in the bondedchannel group 112.

As discussed in greater detail below, the distributor 108 may adapt thebonding configuration used to deliver data to the destination 104. Aspart of the bonding adaptation process, the distributor 108 may monitorany number of bonding environment characteristics associated withcommunicating the data to the destination 104. For example, thedistributor 108 may monitor data characteristics associated with packetdata carried by the STS 110 or by any number of data sources 128,transmission characteristics associated with communication resources ofthe source 102, destination characteristics associated with destination104, channel characteristics such as channel conditions or performance,or others. Upon identifying a change in on or more of the monitoredcharacteristics, the distributor 108 may determine a configurationchange to the bonding configuration. The configuration change may alterany number of bonding configuration parameters to adapt to a changeddata characteristic, transmission characteristic, destinationcharacteristic, or other bonding environment characteristic associatedwith delivering the data from the source 102 to the destination 104. Thedistributor 108 may alter the bonding configuration according to theconfiguration change, resulting in an adjusted bonding configuration.Then, the distributor 108 may distribute a subsequent portion of data,e.g., the next packets in the STS 110 pending delivery, for eventualtransmission to the destination 104.

Before, during, or after the bonding adaptation process, the source 102and the destination 104 may exchange configuration communications 126.The configuration communications 126 may travel over an out-of-band orin-band channel between the source 102 and the destination 104, forexample in the same or a similar way as program channel guideinformation, and using any of the communication channel types identifiedabove.

One example of a configuration communication is a message from thesource 102 to the destination 104 that conveys the parameters of thebonded channel group 112 to the destination 104. More specifically, theconfiguration communication 126 may specify the number of communicationchannels bonded together; identifiers of the bonded communicationchannels; the types of programs that the bonded communication channelswill carry; marker packet format; chunk, program packet, or markerpacket size; chunk, program packet, or marker packet PID or sequencenumber information, or any other chunk or bonding configurationinformation that facilitates processing of the bonded channel group 112at the destination 104. The configuration communication 126 may specifybonding configuration parameters initially employed to communicate thedata, adapted bonding configuration parameters, or both.

One example of a configuration communication message from thedestination 104 to the source 102 is a configuration communication thatspecifies the number of communication channels that the destination 104may process as eligible bonded channels; identifiers of the eligiblebonded channels; status information concerning status of thedemodulators 116, e.g., that a demodulator is not functioning and thatits corresponding communication channel should not be included in abonded channel group; channel conditions that affect bit rate orbandwidth; or any other information that the source 102 and thedistributor 108 may consider that affects processing of the data fromthe sources into a bonded channel group.

FIG. 2 shows an example implementation 200 of a distributor 108. Thedistributor 108 includes a monitor 202 and an adaptor 204. In addition,the distributor 108 includes modulator output interfaces, such as thoselabeled as 206, 208, and 210.

The monitor 202 may be implemented as hardware, software, or both. Themonitor 202 may monitor any number of bonded environment characteristicsbefore, during, or after the delivery of a data communication from thesource 102 to the destination 104. The monitor 102 may receivemonitoring data from any number of sources to identify changes to thebonded environment occurring during the data communication. As examples,the monitor 202 shown in FIG. 2 receives the STS 110 and theconfiguration communication 126. The monitor 202 also communicates withthe modulator output interfaces 206-210 as well, through which themonitor 202 may receive communication channel data indicative of channelconditions, reliability, power consumption, transmission parameters, orother transmission characteristics associated with one or more of themodulators 130 that currently drive a communication channel of thebonded channel group 112. The monitor 202 may receive communicationchannel data from modulators 130 corresponding to communication channelsoutside the bonded channel group 112 as well. As discussed in greaterdetail below, the monitor 202 may analyze the received monitoring datato possibly determine a configuration change. The monitor 202 may sendthe determined configuration change to the adaptor 204.

The adaptor 204 may be implemented as hardware, software, or both. Theadaptor 204 may determine which data in the STS 110 to send on whichcommunication channel. In that regard, the adaptor 204 may distributedata from the STS 110 to any number of modulator output interfaces,e.g., by sending chunks of one or more packets through a correspondingmodulator output interface. The adaptor 204 may distribute packet dataof the STS 110 according to a bonding configuration. As discussed ingreater detail below, the adaptor 204 may adjust an initial bondingconfiguration used to send the STS 110 packet data in response tochanges in the bonded environment, e.g., in response to receiving aconfiguration change from the monitor 202. The adaptor may determine anadjusted bonding configuration for delivering the source data, and theadaptor 204 may distribute subsequent packet data of the STS 110according to an adjusted bonding configuration. The adjusted bondingconfiguration may additionally or alternatively alter a communicationparameter of any number of communication resources of the source 102,such as the modulators 130, the statistical multiplexer 106, or others.The adjusted bonding configuration may also alter communicationparameters of communication resources of the destination 104 too.

FIG. 3 shows an example implementation of a portion 300 of a distributor108. The portion 300 shown in FIG. 3 may implement monitoringfunctionality in the distributor 108, and includes the monitor 202 andmodulator interfaces 206-210 discussed above. The monitor 202 includes acommunication interface 302 and monitoring logic 304. The communicationinterface 302 may receive data from various sources, including sourcesinternal and external to the source 102. The communication interface 302may include a high bandwidth (e.g., optical fiber) interface to receivethe STS 110. The communication interface 302 may also receive aconfiguration communication 126 from the destination 104, e.g., througha sideband or in-band communication channel between the source 102 andthe destination 104. The monitor 202 may receive monitoring dataindicative of transmission characteristics or parameters associated withany communication channel connecting the source 102 and destination 104,which the monitor 202 may receive directly from modulator outputinterfaces or through the communication interface 302.

The monitor 202 also communicates with the adaptor 204, for instance bysending a configuration change message 320 indicative of a configurationchange determined by the monitoring logic 304. The configuration changemessage 320 may specify a particular bonding environment characteristicchange, such one or more of the characteristic changes identified by themonitor 202. In this example, and as described in greater detail belowwith respect to FIGS. 5 and 6, the adaptor 204 may use the specifiedcharacteristic change to accordingly adjust the bonding configuration,such as by modifying the bonding configuration parameters 312. As avariation, the configuration change message 320 may directly specify oneor more changes to the bonding configuration parameters 312.

The monitoring logic 304 implements as hardware, software, or both, anyof the logic described in connection with the operation of the monitor202 or any other portion or functionality of the distributor 108. As oneexample, the monitoring logic 304 may include one or more processors 306and program and data memories 308. The program and data memories 308hold, for example, monitoring instructions 310, bonding configurationparameters 312, and bonding adaptation criteria 314. The processors 306execute the monitoring instructions 310 to monitor and analyze bondingenvironment characteristics associated with a data communication to thedestination 104; to determine whether a configuration change iswarranted; and to determine the content of the configuration change. Thebonding configuration parameters 312 inform the processors 306 as to thecurrent bonding configuration employed by content delivery architecture100, including the distributor 108. The bonding adaptation criteria 314specify conditions and other criteria the processors 306 use todetermine whether a configuration change is warranted and/or content ofthe configuration change. In determining the configuration change, themonitoring logic 304 may take into account various factors, includingany combination of the monitoring data, an analysis of the monitoringdata, identified changes in the bonding environment, the current bondingconfiguration parameters 312, and the bonding adaptation criteria 314.

The monitor 202 monitors any number of parameters, conditions, traits,attributes, or other bonding environment characteristics associated withthe source 102, destination 104, the data communication, intermediatenetwork nodes, or any aspects relating to the bonded environment. Themonitor 202 may monitor these environment characteristics in severalways. For instance, the monitor 202 may monitor a characteristicperiodically, e.g., at a periodic rate specified by a configurableperiod parameter, aperiodically, in response to a user request, uponreceiving a configuration communication 126, by measuring environmentcharacteristic values, e.g., a channel condition value of acommunication channel, or any combination thereof. In monitoring thebonded environment characteristics, the monitor 202 identifies changesin one or more of the monitored characteristics and determines whether aconfiguration change is warranted. In one variation, the monitor 202 maydetermine a configuration change when one or more characteristic changessatisfy the bonding adaptation criteria 314. The monitor 202 maymonitor—e.g., measure, observe and/or analyze, any combination of thebonded environment characteristics, including any combination of theexemplary characteristics presented next.

The monitor 202 may monitor data characteristics of the bondedenvironment. Data characteristics may refer to any attribute,requirement, or transmission parameter associated with the data sent bythe source 102 to the destination 104. In that regard, the monitor 202may receive and analyze the STS 110, data from one or more individualdata sources 130, or both. In one variation, the monitor 202 may filterthe STS 110 to analyze a subset of the STS 110, e.g., a particularprogram in the STS 110 or a portion of the STS 110 originating from aselected data source among the data sources 130. To monitor the data,the monitor 202 may examine the packet content of any number of packetsin the monitored data, e.g., examining packet headers, tags, payload,etc. The monitor 202 may identify, with respect to the monitored data,any change in data type, specified communication path, communicationrequirement or other attribute associated with the monitored data. Acommunication requirement of the monitored data may specify a particularbit-rate, priority, Quality-of-Service (QoS), reliability, or otherparameter specifying a communication characteristic of the data.

The monitor 202 may determine a configuration change when a monitoreddata characteristic changes. For example, the bonding adaptationcriteria 314 may be satisfied when the monitor 202 identifies a changein data type and/or transmission priority of data, e.g., the STS 110,being delivered to the destination 104. The monitor 202 may alsodetermine a configuration change when a monitored data characteristicchanges beyond a specified amount, such as predetermined thresholdspecified by the bonding adaptation criteria 314. The bonding adaptationcriteria 314 may specifically indicate which data characteristic changeswarrant a configuration change based on exceeding a predeterminedthreshold parameter. In that regard, the bonding adaptation criteria 314may include specific threshold parameters for changes to selected datacharacteristics, e.g., specific thresholds for changes to latency,bandwidth, QoS, or other communication characteristics of packet data inthe STS 110.

In one instance, the monitor 202 may determine a data characteristicchange by identifying a QoS characteristic change that occurs in themonitored data. For example, the monitor 202 may identify an increase inthe number or proportion of packets in the STS 110 requiring an elevatedQoS. The current bonding configuration may specify insufficientcommunication resources, e.g., communication channels, to satisfy theQoS requirement of particular packet data in the STS 110. Conversely, asthe STS 110 is delivered to the destination 104 and the STS 110 contentchanges, the STS 110 may proportionally or aggregately decrease inrequired QoS. In such a case, the bonding configuration may result in asurplus of communication resources transmitting the source data at ahigher QoS than required by the packet data. When changes in QoS of theSTS 110 occur, the monitor 202 may determine a configuration change asspecified by the bonding adaptation criteria 314.

The monitor 202 may determine a configuration change that correlateswith an identified data characteristic change. As one illustrativeexample, when the monitor 202 determines the data type of the STS 110changes from an High-Definition (HD) video stream to a Non-HD videostream, the configuration change may specify adjusting the bondingconfiguration of the bonded channel group 112 accordingly—e.g., byadjusting aggregate or individual bandwidth by a particular amount,adjusting the QoS capability by a particular amount, or adjusting otheraggregate communication capabilities of the bonded channel group 112,such as bit-rate, latency, chunk size, security, or othercharacteristics of the bonded channel group 112. Thus, the monitor 202may monitor data characteristics of the data content delivered to thedestination 104.

As another exemplary characteristic, the monitor 202 may monitorbandwidth availability. The monitor 202 may monitor the bandwidthavailability of any number of communication channels in the contentdelivery architecture 100, including the bandwidth availability of one,some, or all of the communication channels in a current bonded channelgroup 112, as specified by a current bonding configuration. The monitor202 may also observe bandwidth availability of communication channelsnot part of the current bonded channel group 112—e.g., communicationchannels not being used by the distributor 108 to send the STS 110 todestination 104. In one implementation, the monitor 202 periodicallyretrieves bandwidth availability indications from one or more eligiblecommunication channels though the respective modulator output interfacesassociated with the eligible communication channels. The bandwidthavailability indication may identify any combination of the totalthroughput of a particular communication channel, used throughput, oravailable throughput (e.g., unused throughput).

The monitor 202 may also identify changes in bandwidth availability whenone or more communication channels become available, unavailable, or amix of both. This scenario may occur, for instance, when an additionalcommunication channel is activated, connected, or otherwise madeavailable on the source 102, destination 104, or both. Similarly, themonitor 202 may identify a bandwidth availability change through achannel availability change when a communication channel is deactivated,disconnected, or otherwise made unavailable by the source 102,destination 104, or both. The monitor 102 may identify channelavailability changes among communication channels within and/or outsidethe bonded channel group 112. As another example, communication channelsoutside the bonded channel group 112 may become available as the source102 or destination 104 complete separate communications directed toother devices. In this case, the monitor 202 may identify a change inbandwidth availability when the previously used communication channelsbecome available for use. The monitor 202 may identify channelavailability changes that occur in the destination 104 or anintermediate node via a received configuration communication 126indicating an additional eligible communication channel.

In response to identifying a bandwidth availability change, the monitor202 may determine a configuration change to a bonding configurationemployed by the content delivery architecture 100. The bondingadaptation criteria 314 may be satisfied when an identified bandwidthavailability change exceeds a predetermined bandwidth threshold, whichmay vary according to particular communication channels, types ofcommunication channels, groupings of communication channels, etc. Theconfiguration change determined by the monitor 202 may directly orindirectly correlate with the bandwidth availability change, e.g., theconfiguration change specifies increasing or decreasing the aggregatebandwidth of the bonded channel group 112 in a proportional or equalamount as the bandwidth availability change.

Continuing the listing of exemplary characteristics, the monitor 202 mayidentify changes in demand. Demand changes may refer to any change thataffects the required bit rate to communicate the source data to thedestination 104. As an example, a demand decrease may occur when the STS110 changes from carrying an HD video stream to a non-HD video stream.Along similar lines, a demand increase may occur when the STS 110changes from carrying a non-HD audio stream to an HD audio stream.Demand changes may result according to the amount of video data presentat various points of a video stream, e.g., an intense action scene of anvideo broadcast may result in packet data carrying greater amounts ofvideo data than, for example, a prolonged still sequence in a videostream. The monitor 202 may determine demand changes by inspectingcontent of data transmitted from the source 102, e.g., the STS 110. Inthis respect, the monitoring and analysis of demand characteristics andchanges thereto may share similarities with the monitoring and analysisof data characteristics described above.

The monitor 202 may also monitor a power characteristic, which may referto any power-related characteristic associated with the source 102,destination 104, or both. Power characteristics include, as examples,total power consumption, power consumption rate, and power availability.The monitor 202 may identify changes in the power consumption rate forone or more communication channels within the bonded channel group 112,outside the bonded channel group 112, or both. The monitor 202 may alsoidentify power availability changes, which may occur through thechanging of one or more power sources supplying the source 102. Poweravailability in the source 102 may fluctuate when the source 102transitions from receiving power through an external or permanent powersource, e.g., plugged in through a power outlet, to an internal ortemporary power source, e.g., battery. A similar power availabilitychange may also occur in the destination 104 or any intermediate networknode, which the monitor 202 may identify through a receivedconfiguration communication 126 or through other messaging. The monitor202 may determine a configuration change when a power characteristicchanges or changes beyond a predetermined power threshold. Thedetermined configuration change may specify the identified powercharacteristic change.

Continuing, the monitor 202 may monitor any number of channelcharacteristics. One exemplary group of channel characteristics includeschannel condition characteristics of any communication channelaccessible by the source 102, destination 104, or any other intermediatenetwork node. The monitor 202 may observe channel characteristicsindicative of throughput, latency, efficiency, QoS capability,reliability, or other channel indicia. For example, the monitor 202 mayobtain a Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), signal strength, background noiselevel, radio coverage (e.g., for wireless connections), channelcapacity, or any other performance or quality metrics for any of themonitored communication channels to detect changes to the bondedenvironment.

The monitored channel characteristics may also include path or link costfor communicating across one or more particular communication channelswithin the bonded channel group 112, among eligible communicationchannels in the source 102, the destination 104 or intermediate networknodes, or any combination thereof. Link cost or past cost may refer toany number of route characteristics associated with communicating datathrough a particular communication channel or group of communicationchannels. Link cost determination may take into account delay, distance,throughput, error rate, monetary cost, number of hops, link failures, orother factors. The monitor 202 may determine link costs in various ways,including according to any known routing algorithms. As such, themonitor 202 may identify changes in the link cost for communicationacross a particular communication channel, either within or outside thebonded channel group 112. The monitor 202 may identify channelcharacteristic changes and, in response, determine a configurationchange that specifies the particular channel characteristic changesidentified by the monitor 202.

The monitor 202 may also monitor channel availability, which may beidentified in any of the ways as described above with respect tomonitoring bandwidth availability. The monitor 202 may determine aconfiguration change when a newly available communication channeldiffers in transmission characteristics from one or more communicationchannels in the bonded channel group 112, e.g., according to channelcapacity, available bandwidth, QoS, latency, reliability, quality, cost,or any other parameter or trait discussed above. When identifying achannel availability change, the monitor 202 may determine aconfiguration change, which the monitor 202 may communicate as aconfiguration change message 320 to the adaptor 204. The monitor 202 mayalso determine a configuration change when one or more communicationchannels within the bonded channel group 112 become unavailable, e.g.,through a hardware failure. In such a case, the configuration change mayspecify removing the unavailable communication channel from the bondedchannel group 112 and/or configuration adjustments to compensate for theunavailable communication channel, e.g., increased bandwidth, additionalQoS, bit-rate, etc., to compensate for the removed communicationchannel.

The monitor 202 may monitor any combination of the exemplarycharacteristics described above as well as any other communication orenvironment characteristic associated with the bonded communicationenvironment. The bonding adaptation criteria 314 may include one or morecriterion for any particular monitored characteristic, which may besatisfied when the monitor 202 identifies a characteristic change and/ora characteristic change exceeding a predetermined threshold, therebyresulting in a configuration change to the bonding configuration. Themonitor 202 may then communicate the configuration change to the adaptor204, e.g., as a configuration change message 320.

The monitor 202 may additionally or alternatively determine aconfiguration change in response to obtaining a configuration changerequest. The configuration change request may be implemented as amessage sent by other logic in the source 102 or an external source,e.g., the destination 104. To illustrate, the destination 104 may send aconfiguration communication 126 requesting, as an example, increasedbandwidth for content delivered to the destination 104. As anotherexample, a network provider operating the source 102 may instruct thesource 102 to provide increased service—e.g., increased bandwidth,reliability, QoS, or an increase in any other communication quality orperformance metric—for a particular service group, user, customer, datatype, data originating from a particular data source 130, period oftime, geographical zone, specific broadcast or program, communicationsession, or other segment. In one variation, a user may requestadditional bandwidth for a particular program, time slot, or session bypaying an additional service fee. The network operator or serviceprovider may then request a configuration change to accommodate theuser's increase service request (e.g., a pay-per-bond option). Asanother example with respect to the configuration change request, thedestination 104 or external logic may send a configuration changerequest that elevates the priority of a particular data type, data set,or other data segment.

In response to receiving a configuration change request, the monitor 202may determine a configuration change indicative of the requested change.The monitor 202 may then communicate the configuration change to theadaptor 204, e.g., as a configuration change message 320.

FIG. 4 shows an example of logic 400 for monitoring content deliveryconditions. The logic 400 may be implemented as hardware, software, orboth. For example, the monitoring logic 304 may implement the logic 400in software as the monitoring instructions 310.

The monitoring logic 304 may obtain a current bonding configuration(402) that the source 102 employs to communicate source data to thedestination 104 or an intermediate network node. For instance, themonitoring logic 304 may access bonding configuration parameters 312specifying the current bonding configuration. While the source 102communicates the source data, the monitoring logic 304 may monitor anynumber of bonding environment characteristics (404), including any ofthe exemplary characteristics discussed above. The monitoring logic 304may monitor the environment characteristics periodically, upon userrequest, or at any other rate or frequency. The monitoring logic mayalso monitor bonding environment characteristics by receiving contentdata (e.g., the STS 110), environment data (e.g., a measured channelcondition through a modulator output interface), or other data (e.g., aconfiguration communication 126 from the destination 104 or otherintermediate network node).

Upon identifying a characteristic change (406), the monitoring logic 304may determine whether characteristic change satisfies the bondingadaptation criteria 314 (408). Such a determination may also take intoaccount the current bonding configuration. When the monitoring logic 304does not identify a characteristic change or when an identifiedcharacteristic change does not satisfy the bonding adaptation criteria314, the monitoring logic 304 may continue to monitor the bondingenvironment characteristics. When one or more identified characteristicchanges satisfy the bonding adaptation criteria 314, the monitoringlogic 304 may determine a configuration change based on thecharacteristic changes. The monitoring logic may also identify aconfiguration change in response to receiving a configuration changerequest (410), as described above.

In one implementation, the configuration change specifies the one ormore characteristic changes that satisfy the bonding adaptation criteria314. The configuration change may additionally or alternatively specifythe particular configuration change request received by the monitoringlogic 304. The monitoring logic 304 then sends a configuration changemessage 320 to additional logic (e.g., the adaptor 204) to adapt thebonding configuration based on these characteristic changes and/orconfiguration change requests (412). Until the source 102 stops sendingsource data to the destination 104 (414), the monitoring logic 304 mayobtain an adjusted bonding configuration (416) and continue themonitoring process.

FIG. 5 shows an example implementation of a portion 500 of a distributor108. The portion 500 shown in FIG. 5 may implement bonding configurationadaptation functionality in the distributor 108, and includes theadaptor 204 and modulator interfaces 206-210 discussed above. Theadaptor 202 includes a STS input interface 502 and adaptation logic 504.The STS input interface 502 may include a high bandwidth (e.g., opticalfiber) interface to receive the STS 110. The adaptor 204 may alsoreceive a communication change message 320 from the monitor 202 invarious ways, e.g., through a communication interface with the monitor202, by accessing a shared memory location, or in other ways. Thecommunication change message 320 may indicate one or more bondingenvironment characteristic changes identified by the monitor 202 or aconfiguration change request.

The adaptation logic 504 implements as hardware, software, or both, anyof the logic described in connection operation of the adaptor 204 or anyother portion or functionality of the distributor 108, includingdistributing the STS 110 as packet data across different communicationchannels in a bonded channel group 112. As one example, the adaptationlogic 504 may include one or more processors 506 and program and datamemories 508. The program and data memories 508 hold, for example,adaptation instructions 510 and bonding configuration parameters 512.The monitor 202 described above and the adaptor 204 may share commoncircuitry, including as examples processors and memories. In thatregard, the monitor 202 and adaptor 204 may access a common set ofbonding configuration parameters 512 such that bonding configurationadjustments reflected in the bonding configuration parameters 512 may beaccessible by the monitor 202, adaptor 204, or both.

The processors 506 execute the adaptation instructions 510 to receivethe configuration change message 320 and in response, determine andapply modifications to a bonding configuration. The processors 506obtain an adjusted bonding configuration, which may be used to updatethe bonding configuration parameters 512. Then, the processors 506 oranother portion of the distributor 108 may distribute subsequent sourcedata, e.g., next packet or group of packets in the STS 110, according tothe adjusted bonding configuration.

In operation, the adaptor 204 may adjust the bonding configuration inany number of ways to effectuate a configuration change specified by theconfiguration change message 320. Exemplary modifications to the bondingconfiguration that the adaptor 204 may implement are presented next. Theadaptor 204 may implement an adjusted bonding configuration by updatingthe bonding configuration parameters 512, sending parameter changeindications to communication resources in the source 102 (e.g., throughthe modulator output interfaces), or sending a configurationcommunication 126 to the destination 104 specifying the adjusted bondingconfiguration, changes to the previous bonding configuration, or both.

As one exemplary adjustment, the adaptor 104 may adjust the bondedchannel group 112. In that regard, the adaptor may add one or moreavailable communication channels to the bonded channel group 112, removeone or more communication channels from the bonded channel group 112, orboth. Bonded channel group adjustments may be made with respect to atype of communication channel—e.g., by removing one or more channels ofa particular type or by replacing communication channels of a firstchannel type with communication channels of a second channel type. Theadaptor 104 may determine an adjusted bonding configuration that resultsin uneven bonding group sizes for channels of different types. Theadjusted bonding configuration may also result in changes to the numbertypes of communication channels in the bonded channel group, such as byadding a new type of communication channel to the bonded channel group112 or removing all communication channels of a particular channel typefrom the bonded channel group 112.

The adaptor 204 may adjust the bonded channel group 112 in response toany number of configuration changes identified by the monitor 204.First, the adaptor 204 may adjust a bonding configuration to add anadditional communication channel to the bonded channel group 112 inresponse to various configuration changes. For instance, the adaptor 204may adjust the bonded configuration to add an additional communicationchannel in response to a configuration change specifying an increaseddemand, increased (e.g., shorter) latency requirement, increasedbandwidth requirement, increased bandwidth request (e.g., as specifiedby a configuration change request from a network operator, thedestination 104, a user, or others), increased data priority, increasedpower availability, or other configuration changes or requests.Conversely, the adaptor 204 may adjust the bonded configuration toremove a communication channel from the bonded group 112 in response tovarious configuration changes well. Such configuration changes mayinclude decreased demand, decreased (e.g., longer) latency requirement,decreased bandwidth requirement, decreased bandwidth request, adecreased data priority, decreased power availability, or other changesand requests. As a further example, the adaptor 204 may add or remove acommunication channel from the bonded channel group 112 to adjust theaggregate bandwidth of the bonded channel group 112 according to aconfiguration change.

In another variation, the adaptor 204 may adjust the bonded channelgroup 112 by adding one or more available communication channels whilealso removing one or more communication channels. This adjusted bondingconfiguration may occur when one or more available communicationchannels have increased transmission capability as compared to one orcommunication channels in the bonded channel group 112. As oneillustrative example, the adaptor 204 may receive a configuration changemessage 320 indicating the activation of an unused 30 Mbps cablechannel, which communicate data at a higher bandwidth, quality, andreliability, than two 802.11 wireless channels currently part of thebonded channel group 112 and performing at 10 Mbps. The adaptor 204 mayadjust the bonding configuration to remove the two 802.11 wirelesschannels while adding the newly available cable channel. In this way,the adaptor 204 may at least maintain (and in this example, increase)the aggregate bandwidth of the bonded channel group 112 while increasingthe quality and reliability capability of the bonded channel group. Asanother example, the adaptor 204 may subsequently receive aconfiguration change message 320 indicating a decrease in poweravailability in the source 102, destination 104, or both. In oneinstance, adaptor 204 may adjust the bonding configuration to remove the30 Mbps cable channel and add one or more available communicationchannels that aggregately consume a less power during communication toeffectuate the decreased power availability indicated in theconfiguration change message 320.

While two examples were provided above, the adaptor 204 may adjust thebonded channel group 112 to adjust one or more capabilities of thebonded channel group 112 according to an identified configurationchange. Similarly, the adaptor 204 may adjust the bonded channel group112 in response to increasing or decreasing performance or metricscharacteristic (e.g., channel condition) associated with communicationchannels within the bonded channel group 112, outside the bonded channelgroup, or both. As mentioned above, such performance or quality metricsmay include changes in SNR, reliability, robustness, link and path cost,or other that warrant adding, removing, or replacing communicationchannels from the bonded channel group 112. As various communicationmediums (e.g., communication channel types) have varying capabilitiesand performance characteristics, the adaptor 204 may adjust the bondingconfiguration to include within the bonded channel group 112 selectedcommunication mediums or channel types that most effectively orefficiently communicate the source data.

As an additional or alternative adjustment, the adaptor 204 may modifyany number of transmission parameters of a communication channel. Theadaptor 204 may increase the bit-rate of a particular communicationchannel in response to a demand increase, required bandwidth increase,increased throughput, increased power availability, or otherconfiguration changes. The adaptor 204 may also adjust the chunk size ofpacket groups sent across a communication channel as well.

As a particular transmission parameter adjustment, the adaptor 204 mayadjust the bonding configuration by adjusting the transmit power used tocommunicate across one or more communication channels. For instance, theadaptor may increase the transmit power for one or more modulators orother communication resources in the source 102 upon receiving aconfiguration change that requests or specifies an increased poweravailability, increased reliability requirement, increased power requestfor a particular type of data, data type, communication session, etc.,or other changes. The adaptor 204 may reduce transmission power of oneor more communication channels in response to converse configurationchanges or requests.

As another adjustment, the adaptor 204 may adjust the bondingconfiguration to send redundant data across multiple communicationchannels. Doing so may increase the error resiliency and/or reliabilityof the bonding configuration. For example, the monitor 202 may determinean increased reliability requirement, a decreased reliability aparticular communication channel within the bonded channel group 112, orboth. The adaptor 204 may further determine that available communicationchannels are equally or more unreliable than the particularcommunication channel of the bonded channel group 112, and/or are,alone, incapable of supporting the increased reliability requirement. Assuch, the adaptor 204 may add one of the available communicationchannels to the bonded channel group 112 to send redundant data through.In that way, the increase the error resiliency of the bondingconfiguration by increasing the likelihood that the source data isproperly sent through at least one of the multiple communicationchannels in the bonded channel group 112 sending redundant data.

As a particular adjustment, the adaptor 204 may disable channelbonding—e.g., by removing all communication channels from the bondedchannel group 112. The adaptor 204 may determine this adjustment when aconfiguration change indicates a single communication channel capablecan support the communication requirements of the source data.

The adaptor 204 may obtain an adjusted bonding configuration byperforming any combination of the exemplary adjustments described aboveas well as performing any other adjustments to the bondingconfiguration. The adaptor 204 may also update the bonding configurationparameters 512 to reflect the adjusted bonding configuration and send aconfiguration communication 126 to the destination indicative of theadjusted bonding configuration. Upon adjusting the bondingconfiguration, the source 102 (e.g., the distributor 108, modulators130, etc.) may communicate subsequent source data according to theadjusted bonding configuration.

FIG. 6 shows an example of logic 600 for modifying a channel bondingconfiguration. The logic 600 may be implemented as hardware, software,or both. For example, the adaptation logic 504 may implement the logic600 in software as the adaptation instructions 510.

The adaptation logic 504 may obtain a configuration change (602), whichmay dictate a change to the bonding configuration. As one example, theadaptation logic 504 may receive a configuration change communication320 from the monitor 202 specifying an identified characteristic changein the bonding environment. In response, the adaptation logic 504 maydetermine a modification to the bonding configuration (604), resultingin an adjusted bonding configuration. The adaptation logic 504 mayperform the determined modification (606), which may include any of theexemplary adjustments discussed above. Thus, the adaptation logic 504may perform any combination of modifying the bonded channel group 112,modifying communication parameters of any number of communicationresources, such as adjusting transmit power or bit-rate of a particularcommunication channel, adjust chunk size sent through a communicationchannel, designate an additional communication channel to redundantlysend subsequent source data through, or other modifications. The adaptor204 may perform the modifications on a per-channel basis, acrossmultiple communication channels in the bonded channel group 112,step-wise, gradually or sequentially over a predetermined period oftime, through hysteresis, or in other ways.

The adaptation logic 504 may modify the bonding configuration to adjustan aggregate capability of bonded channel group 112. The adaptationlogic 504 may increase the aggregate bandwidth of the bonded channelgroup 112, decrease the power consumption rate for communicating acrossthe bonded channel group 112, increase the reliability of subsequentsource data sent through the bonded channel group 112, or any number ofadjustments to an aggregate capability of the bonded channel group 112.

The adaptation logic 504 may update the bonding configuration parameters512 (608) and inform the destination 104 of the adjusted bondingconfiguration (610), e.g., through configuration communication 126. Thesource 102 may then communicate subsequent source data to thedestination 104 according to the adjusted bonding configuration.

As described above, the distributor 108 (and more particularly themonitor 202 and adaptor 204) may coordinate to dynamically adjust thebonding configuration employed by the content delivery architecture 100in response to an identified bonding environment change or configurationchange request. As complexities in circumstances and communicationcharacteristics of various communication mediums change over time, thedistributor 108 may optimally adjust the configuration to respond tosuch changes. Thus, a flexible system that may respond to changingconditions and optimally transmit source data from a source 102 to adestination 104.

While the monitor 202 and adaptor 204 were described above with respectto the source 102, the any combination or portion of the monitor 204 andadaptor 204 may be implemented in the destination 104, an intermediatenetwork node, or any other device in the content delivery architecture100. For example, the monitor 202 and/or the adaptor 204 may beimplemented in the destination 104 as part of the collator 118, the TIP122, or as separate logic. Upon identifying changes to the bondedenvironment, the destination 104 may adjust a bonding configuration,send a configuration communication 126 to the source 102, or perform anyother action to adapt the content delivery architecture 100 in responseto the environment change.

The methods, devices, and logic described above may be implemented inmany different ways in many different combinations of hardware, softwareor both hardware and software. For example, all or parts of the systemmay include circuitry in a controller, a microprocessor, or anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or may be implementedwith discrete logic or components, or a combination of other types ofanalog or digital circuitry, combined on a single integrated circuit ordistributed among multiple integrated circuits. All or part of the logicdescribed above may be implemented as instructions for execution by aprocessor, controller, or other processing device and may be stored in atangible or non-transitory machine-readable or computer-readable mediumsuch as flash memory, random access memory (RAM) or read only memory(ROM), erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM) or othermachine-readable medium such as a compact disc read only memory (CDROM),or magnetic or optical disk. Thus, a product, such as a computer programproduct, may include a storage medium and computer readable instructionsstored on the medium, which when executed in an endpoint, computersystem, or other device, cause the device to perform operationsaccording to any of the description above.

The processing capability of the system may be distributed amongmultiple system components, such as among multiple processors andmemories, optionally including multiple distributed processing systems.Parameters, databases, and other data structures may be separatelystored and managed, may be incorporated into a single memory ordatabase, may be logically and physically organized in many differentways, and may implemented in many ways, including data structures suchas linked lists, hash tables, or implicit storage mechanisms. Programsmay be parts (e.g., subroutines) of a single program, separate programs,distributed across several memories and processors, or implemented inmany different ways, such as in a library, such as a shared library(e.g., a dynamic link library (DLL)). The DLL, for example, may storecode that performs any of the system processing described above. Whilevarious embodiments of the invention have been described, it will beapparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that many moreembodiments and implementations are possible within the scope of theinvention. Accordingly, the invention is not to be restricted except inlight of the attached claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: obtaining a bondingconfiguration specifying a bonded channel group comprising a firstnumber of channels compliant with a first communication protocol and asecond number of channels compliant with a second communication protocoldifferent from the first communication protocol; obtaining data fortransport within a transport stream over the bonded channel group;distributing the transport stream over each channel in the bondedchannel group; after distributing the transport stream over each channelin the bonded channel group, communicating the transport stream over thebonded channel group; after communication the transport stream,obtaining a configuration change specifying a change to the first numberof channels; and adjusting the bonded channel group by adjusting thefirst number of channels over which the transport stream is distributed.2. The method of claim 1, where obtaining the configuration changecomprises obtaining the configuration change responsive to anenvironmental bonding characteristic that affects the bonded channelgroup.
 3. The method of claim 1, where obtaining the configurationchange comprises obtaining the configuration change responsive to achange in a data type to be sent over the bonded channel group.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, where obtaining the configuration change comprisesobtaining the configuration change responsive to a change in channeleligibility for the bonded channel group.
 5. The method of claim 1,further comprising: receiving an indication of a bonding characteristicchange from an intermediate node between a source and destination; andresponsive to the indication, generating the configuration change. 6.The method of claim 1, further comprising sending the bondingconfiguration to a destination device after obtaining the bondingconfiguration.
 7. The method of claim 6, where sending the bondingconfiguration to the destination device comprises sending the bondingconfiguration over an out-of-band channel outside the bonded channelgroup.
 8. The method of claim 1, where adjusting the first numbercomprises removing all channels compliant with the first communicationprotocol from the bonded channel group.
 9. The method of claim 1, whereadjusting the first number comprises replacing a first channel of thefirst number of channels with an additional channel compliant with thesecond communication protocol, the additional channel not being part ofthe bonded channel group prior to the replacing.
 10. The method of claim1, further comprising adjusting a bit-rate for selectively the firstcommunication protocol responsive to the configuration change.
 11. Adevice comprising: first interface circuitry configured to couple tofirst-type physical channels compliant with a first communicationprotocol; second interface circuitry configured to couple to second-typephysical channels compliant with a second communication protocoldifferent from the first communication protocol; and control circuitryin data communication with the first and second interface circuitry, thecontrol circuitry configured to: determine a bonding configuration thatspecifies a bonded channel group comprising a first number of thefirst-type physical channels and a second number of the second-typephysical channels; responsive to the bonding configuration, establishthe bonded channel group using the first number of the first-typephysical channels the second number of the second-type physicalchannels; obtain data for transport within a transport stream over thebonded channel group; after establishing the bonded channel group,distribute the transport stream over each channel in the bonded channelgroup; after distributing the transport stream over each channel in thebonded channel group, obtain a configuration change that specifies achange to the first number; and responsive to the configuration change,adjust the bonded channel group by changing the first number of thefirst-type physical channels included in the bonded channel group overwhich the transport stream is distributed.
 12. The device of claim 11,where the control circuitry is configured to obtain the configurationchange responsive to a change in throughput for the bonded channelgroup.
 13. The device of claim 11, where the control circuitry isconfigured to obtain the configuration change responsive to a change inchannel reliability for the bonded channel group.
 14. The device ofclaim 11, where the control circuitry is configured to change the firstnumber of the first-type physical channels included in the bondedchannel group by increasing the first number of the first-type physicalchannels included in the bonded channel group.
 15. The device of claim11, where the control circuitry is configured to send the bondingconfiguration to a destination node before establishing the bondedchannel group.
 16. The device of claim 15, further comprisingout-of-band interface circuitry configured in data communication withthe control circuitry, the out-of-band interface circuitry to couple toan out-of-band channel; and where the control circuitry is configured tosend the bonding configuration to the destination node via theout-of-band channel.
 17. The device of claim 11, where control circuitryis further configured adjust a transmit power for selectively the firstnumber of the first-type physical channels responsive to configurationchange.
 18. A product comprising: a machine-readable medium other than atransitory signal; and instructions stored on the machine-readablemedium, the instructions configured to, when executed, cause a processorto: obtain a bonding configuration that specifies a bonded channel groupcomprising first channel compliant with a first communication protocoland second channel compliant with a second communication protocoldifferent from the first communication protocol; responsive to thebonding configuration, establish the bonded channel group using thefirst channel compliant with the first communication protocol and thesecond channel compliant with the second communication protocol; obtaindata for transport within a transport stream over the bonded channelgroup; after establishing the bonded channel group, distribute thetransport stream over each channel in the bonded channel group; afterdistributing the transport stream over each channel in the bondedchannel group and responsive to a bonding characteristic changeaffecting the first communication protocol, obtain a configurationchange for the first channel; and responsive to the configurationchange, adjust the bonded channel group by perform an adjustment on thefirst channel of the bonded channel group over which the transportstream is distributed in accord with the configuration change.
 19. Theproduct of claim 18, where the adjustment comprises a removal of allchannels compliant with the first communication protocol from the bondedchannel group.
 20. The product of claim 18, where adjustment comprisesan adjustment to a transmit power for the first channel.
 21. The deviceof claim 11, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:adjust the bonded channel group by replacing one of the first-typephysical channels of the bonded channel group with one of thesecond-type physical channels.
 22. The product of claim 18, wherein theinstructions, when executed by the processor, further cause theprocessor to: adjust the bonded channel group by replacing the firstchannel compliant with the first communication protocol with a thirdchannel compliant with the second communication protocol.